Okay, I missed my day for blogging this week. I do have the excuse of getting my son ready to move. He leaves for Colorado today. What am I going to do by myself?

I’ll have to start working on my books in earnest! Those of you who don’t work outside the house, how do you manage your time? I find myself distracting myself frequently. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

I haven’t seen much activity on our group’s blog page, so I’m going to start a new leaf. Another group I belong to has a very active message loop. Yes, they have many more members than we do, but I think all of us would find it beneficial to have more connection between meetings.

I’ve just received a response back from Entangled Publishing for my manuscript. Two weeks for a turn-around. Better than the first publisher I’ve dealt with. As for the first publisher, I’m back to square one because my original editor left the company and a new editor is taking the manuscript from the beginning. And here I was with a second revision completed. Oh well, it’s a learning process and I do have much to learn.

Looking forward to next week’s presentation by Scott P. Several of my stories include some sort of fight scene in them, so it will be very helpful to learn from his expertise.

Okay, I’m passing the baton! Who’ll step up next to blog? It only took me five minutes to type and post this one.

Finding myself with unlimited free time, I need to learn how to write consistently and on a full time basis. Most days I sleep in until I’m hungry. Definitely not a good sign.

How do I motivate myself? How do I sit still enough to get quality work done? I coming up with answers as I write this.

The first thing I’ll need to do is move my desk into the living room. That will get me up, dressed and out of my room. There’ll be no excuses to just sleep the day away.

Next I’m going to commit to a specific schedule during which I can write uninterrupted. The biggest interruption is letting myself get distracted. To this event, I’ll allow distractions only after a determined amount of time of non-stop writing. How else am I going to get the eight or so other books in my queue written.

So, my plan upon returning from Philly, is to move my desk, organised all my writing tools and jump right in and write! No distractions from the two kids living with me, one is only there every other week so it’ll be easier to implement the new rules. The other child is moving to Colorado at the end of August, so there’s one less distraction.

Then I’ve have to figure this out all over again, as when my son moves, we’ll have to downsize to a 2 bedroom apartment instead of the spacious three bedroom we have now. But no use worrying about that until the time comes.

This week I’m at my brother’s, and have the best place to sit and write to my heart’s content. For once, I’m taking advantage of it.

Signed all the papers, paid the first month plus cable and emptied everything from the van into the new space. I’m excited and scared. The excitement is for being in a fairly new (4 years) place with no mold and a fresh CLEAN tub in which I can’t wait to soak! Sandy’s bed is all set up and so is my airbed. Tomorrow will be filling the van a few times and moving it in. Can’t believe my luck in getting Thursday off from the nursing home (didn’t even ask for it) and I’ll use that time to try and get the rest in.

I have a lot of stuff on layaway and may have to figure out how to pay for it all. Mike’s bed and Internet are my next priorities. The chests of drawers can wait until I get the money. At least I made the plan for 12 weeks.

It’s late and I’m bushed from all the physical labor of moving. But I wanted to post because this makes four days in a row that I’ve written something, even if it’s just a blog.

I’m sitting here at my computer and cleaning up all my backlog of correspondence. To think I have two more days before I begin the newest chapter in my life. The incentive to start on the right foot has me at the computer for at least one hour per day. Of course all that time is not always spent writing. With all the different organizations I’m involved with there is still a lot of time to be able to write and keep a clean, safe home.

I’ve even made dinner for the past two nights. For those of you who know me well, that is an accomplishment! Working in the dietary department of a local nursing home has given me ideas of meals my children will eat and make enough for at least one night’s leftovers. Our new refrigerator will not be stocked to the gills, so leftovers will be welcomed for once. LOL. The kitchen cupboards in the house are overflowing, so I’m only going to take the minimum essentials with us.

Right now, I’m going to take a break from the computer and enjoy the baked chicken and vegetables with cheesy scalloped potatoes.

Almost forgot it was my turn to blog. This week’s subject is recovery. Yesterday, I underwent surgery to remove my gallbladder. Everyone told me not to worry, it was a routine procedure.

Thankfully, my husband came with me and sat with me as the anesthesiologist started my meds. I don’t remember anything more until I was in recovery.

I did feel comforted to see my husband by my side as I started to come around. The need to have him there wasn’t evident until that moment. I really was glad he was there.

Yesterday went by pretty much in a blur. The nurse told me I’d sleep a lot as the anesthetic wore off. She was right. I’d try to read or web surf only to find I’d dropped my iTouch as I slept.

Today, though pretty sore, I’ve been moving around. My throat is raw, which realize is from the breathing tube. The nurse did tell me it would be better in another day or so. The ab area is another story. I can walk around fine, it’s the moving in bed and getting up and down in chairs that’s tough.

This week is a period of transition for me. My situation at work became unnecessarily stressful, so I’ve pretty much taken the one shift (hostessing Mon-Fri lunch) off and just waitress four evening shifts.

What a change from even a few months ago. I’m taking the time to get a surgery scheduled and recovery completed before I go back to hostessing. It’s really nice to have peace of mind as I do this.

Another thing the time off has given me is the drive to get back to editing my manuscript for resubmitting to TWRP. Through my Twelve Step work I’m finding one of my greatest flaws is “procrastination.” The question I’ve been asking myself is “why am I stalling when I have a positive response from the editor?”

My answer is I let myself believe is was a fluke, that what I write isn’t good enough for publication. Well, let me tell you I’ve silenced that voice. If my book gets me stoked reading it, it’s good. No more stalling because the second half-written ms is making itself heard in my head. In every waking moment almost.

So, I state here, before my friends that I shall procrastinate no more (at least when it comes to writing 🙂